The cap shaper herewith described is designed to provide the cap owner with a device for shaping, styling, and drying washed sports or ball type caps. This device causes the cap to regain its original prewashed shape.
Cap owners are washing and laundering their ball caps now when they become in need of cleaning. Also the cost and unique designs of ball caps presently available is persuading cap owners to wash and reuse their ball caps on a regular basis.
After a cap has been washed or laundered the cap naturally becomes wet and limp loosing its original shape and style. If left to dry without some form of support, the ball cap will deform and dry flat and wrinkled. Depending on the type of material, the ball cap may also shrink. Circular stiffening materials built into ball caps experience substantial loss of shape during such cleaning operations.
Heretofore the cap owner has had to use any object of the appropriate size and shape to provide this support. Commonly used objects now found in use includes jars, jugs, and coffee cans.
The drawbacks of these objects are numerous. These objects are all solid causing the ambient air to contact only the outer surface of the ball cap, slowing drying time. Also, dried over these objects causes the ball cap to dry in the shape of the object, rather than its original shape and style.
Without proper support the visor or bill of the ball cap will also loose its shape during this phase.
As is to be expected given the popularity of ball caps the prior art is well known. Unfortunately none of the objects mentioned or prior art found addresses all of these problems entirely and adequately.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 2,681,451, which issued to E. Lipechutz on Jun. 22, 1954, discloses a cap reinforcment structure comprising a top and bottom ring interconnected by support members.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,637,077, which issued to E. Henschel on Jan. 10, 1987, comprises an insert to hold the forward portion of the crown of a ball cap allowing the rear of the ball cap to be folded. This allows the frontal portion of the ball cap to hold its shape while the rest is folded to reduce area during shipping.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,805,782, which issued to Everret and Violet Hale on Feb. 21, 1989, discloses a cap shaping and drying apparatus. This device uses a support unit to hold the frontal portion of the crown of the ball cap and a capturing unit to engage and hold the bill of the ball cap.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,858,247, which issued to D. Hooser on Aug. 22, 1989, comprises a circular plastic adjustable ring with a upwardly extending section designed to support and shape the frontal portion of the crown of ball caps.
While these are all functional for their intended purpose, they all fall short in supporting and shaping the "entire" ball cap.
None of the above mentioned patents support or shape the entire crown, inparticularly the entire top portion front to back, of the ball cap. Although U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,681,451 and 4,805,782 have a support means for the visor or bill of the ball cap, they do not provide a mans to actually "shape" the visor or bill.
As such their appears to be a continuing need for new and improved cap shaping structures which may be easily inserted into the entire crown area of a ball cap while possesing sufficient structural strength to maintain crown and bill support and shape.